7 Facts about belgium

• published: 20 May 2015
• views: 2

Belgium has a King, it is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters as well as NATO’s. There are French Belgians, dutch Belgians, german Belgians, all in a country no bigger than Maryland, USA. Learn, Share, Subscribe ------------------------------------------------ Watch the entire series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbZJ71IJGFRTa_XMM9a4hDh2Yo9CsZzOR Follow: https://plus.google.com/+blinder00 https://twitter.com/Sebastian2Go ------------------------------------------------ In this brief video you can find seven little known facts about Belgium. But where is Belgium? Beeing one of the three so called “Low Countries”, it sits confortably in Western Europe. What language do they speak? Well, French, Dutch and German are all official languages of the country. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is also the capital of the European Union and the headquarter of NATO. More information about the video content bellow: 1. It is a Belgian who founded New York City. Many of the Dutch settlers who purchased the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans came from today's Belgium. Peter Minuit himself was a Walloon. The city traces its roots to its 1624 founding as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city came under English control in 1664. 2. The world's two first printed newspapers were both published in 1605. One was printed in Strasbourg, the other (the Nieuwe Tijdingen) was printed in Antwerp. The German-language Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, printed from 1605 onwards in Strasbourg is often recognized as the first newspaper. 3. Belgium is one of the few countries worldwide with compulsory voting. It has the oldest existing compulsory voting system, introduced in 1892 for men and 1949 for women. People aged 18 and over who do not vote face a fine or, if they fail to vote in at least 4 elections, they can lose the right to vote for 10 years. 4. Although the exact number is disputed, Belgium makes over 800 different beers. Belgians drink an average of 150 litres of beer per year per person. According to the Belgian Beer Board, the country holds 125 breweries, in a country the size of Maryland. 5. The 'Dangerous Belgian' was the nickname of the man who invented the saxophone. The instrument was invented in the early 1840's by Adolphe Sax (1814-1894) in Dinant. 6. Belgian painters are credited to have invented oil painting in the 15th century (probably Jan van Eyck). Although oil paint was first used for the Buddhist paintings by Indian and Chinese painters sometime since the fifth century, it did not gain popularity until the 15th century. 7. In 2003, there were 884 registered Belgian comic series. Belgium has more comic makers per square kilometer than any other country in the world. Belgium is famous as the home of the modern Comic Strip with Tintin, the Smurfs and Lucky Luke all hailing from there. In the industry, Belgium is referred to as the "home of the comic book. That's because, since the 1920s, Belgian artists blazed a trail of innovation inventing the "speech bubble," or the drawing technique called "clear line". More Info: http://www.eupedia.com/belgium/trivia.shtml http://cheeseweb.eu/2009/08/25-belgium/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Belgium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxophone http://www.pri.org/stories/2012-10-08/belgium-comic-book-industry-trying-make-comeback Music: Ketsa – Over and Out http://freemusicarchive.org Images: http://www.newamsterdamhistorycenter.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Minuit https://emiliethomassenf21.wordpress.com/2015/01/ https://thelairofthewolf.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/an-increasing-number-of-disasters/ http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/fed-is-having-a-1936-moment.html http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/on-the-ballot-1.1066760?page=all http://stephentwiggmp.co.uk/dont-forget-register-vote/ http://drinkoid.com/the-top-10-belgian-beers/ https://universecityblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/brugge-belgium-venice-of-the-north/ http://timowenmusic.com/saxophone-notes/2013/11/27/how-is-a-saxophone-like-an-m-16 http://explorebuxtonderbyshire.co.uk/the-sheffield-salfield-trio-10th-october/saxophone-wallpaper-omqt/ http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-12-03/meet-dangerous-belgian-who-invented-sax http://www.dhgate.com/product/hot-selling-hd-print-oil-painting-on-canvas/163776398.html http://souvenirfinder.com/2015/01/21/brussels-shopping-guide-best-souvenirs/brussels-belgium-comics-smurf-toys-kids-figurine/ http://smurfs.wikia.com/wiki/Papa_Smurf https://mukit0007.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/character-vectorization-tintin/ http://lordmishkin.deviantart.com/art/Lucky-Luke-124187019 https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-comic.tm2